Been running a 350W and 650W Gold for 3 years, no issue. My Seasonic's still have 2 years warranty left! I'd generalize not to bother buying less than Gold standard now if I'm buying another 5 year investment.

Would love Bit Tech to do a comparison between bronze, gold, platinum. Based on UK electricity prices, average PC usage (8 hour?), and how long you would need to run the different 80 plus PSU's to make them worth the cost.

Are gold/platinum rated PSU's just a waste of money ?
How much extra do we pay in electricity for bronze ?